


Something so Simple

by Willowingends



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25788283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willowingends/pseuds/Willowingends
Summary: She hasn't seen Dominik in so many years, she isn't sure if she's ready to see him again. But she has to, because it's all she's wanted since she stepped foot back on earth.
Relationships: Dominik Koudelka/Renée Minkowski
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	Something so Simple

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk Wolf 359 and other podcasts with me at willowingends.tumblr.com

It had been a big to-do when they returned to earth. Questions, endless interrogations, demands, disbelief. Accusations had been thrown around like hand grenades and they had been separated from each other almost as soon as they had docked. She hadn’t seen Doug, Jacobie, or Isobelle until they were all escorted back down to earth. 

  
  


She heard that Hera had been run through the wringer. She had had her memory banks devoured, torn apart. Everything examined before she was given a type of freedom. But Renée hadn’t been informed of what that freedom was. Of course she hadn’t settled for being kept in the dark. After everything that had happened Commander Renée Minkowski would not stand to be separated from her crew.

  
  


And it had taken some time. A damn long time. But before they were released she had reunited with all three of her human… ish crew members, and Hera as well, in her new, shiny computer with connections that she didn’t think any member of Goddard technology was aware of. Which suited all of them just fine, as she kept in contact with them via the cell phones they had been given, that they had all ditched and then the new phones they had all bought with their severance checks. Anything to keep them quiet. Anything that wouldn’t work. 

  
  


But at the same time as all of that, it had been absolutely silent. The world was deaf to them. No news outlets were made aware of anything happening out of the norm, everything had been hushed up, which had led to some very loudly raised voices. Lovelace’s beginning of the end, as they called it. But Renée had found one advantage in the silence. The silence meant no one knew they were back. Silence meant she wasn’t forced to confront anything yet. No therapists, no doctors, no civilians. Just… scientists, their questions, and nothing about long term effects. It had been… such a long time. But here on earth, she felt like her clock was reset. 

  
  


She was given all the time she needed to figure out what to say to Dominik. 

And yet all the time in the world still didn't feel enough. Standing outside of  _ The Times _ office building, she felt something she hasn't felt in a longtime. The tingling in her toes, the rapid beat of her heart, the curling of her lips that she fights so valiantly but can not fully contain. 

Renée was giddy, and there has been precious few things to be giddy about in the past few years. 

Steeling herself she moved forward, head held high as she walked through the crowd of people traversing the sidewalk. She kept herself held apart, her body making the smallest of micromovements to avoid touching any of them. Her eyes were focused in the prize, the same way they always had been. Pushing open the doors to the office she strolled up to the secretary's desk with a smile that she hoped wouldn't be too unnerving. 

"I have a meeting scheduled with Dom- Mr. Koudelka." His surname, the title, felt so foreign on her tongue she wanted to laugh. There was a hollowness in it too. To be a stranger in a place she should be known at, for bringing him surprise coffee, for meeting him for lunch, for being the spouse he brought to all the office parties. But the woman at the desk only hummed, checking the computer screen before her. 

"Yes, he's in. Waiting for a-"

"Minkowski, yes." 

The woman's eyebrow rose a bit at the interruption, but she simply pointed towards the elevators. "Fifth floor, his name's on the door straight down the hall on the left. Should have no problem finding it Ms. Minkowski."

The title halted her, an uncomfortable rock in her stomach. But she hadn't been trusted as a Commander for her amazing displays of emotion. Tilting her head with the smallest of smiles, she entered the elevator and pressed for five, clasping her hands behind her back and letting the elevator music wash over her. 

Damn she had missed music that wasn't classical, even this wordless, basic crap. A small smile came to her lips at the very Doug like thought, he surely would have had some smart quip or quote or-- Or he would have. 

She clasped her hands tighter, focusing again on her mission. No. It wasn't a  _ mission. _ It was a personal goal. Something that would make her happier, just a task. A normal task. 

The doors dinged open and before she had a chance to step out of them she was assaulted by her own name.

"-Minkowski that's what I said yeah. Like my ex-wife. Let me say it was a shock for me when I saw I had a meeting scheduled with them. I just wonder what they want. There weren't any details or anything-"

The doors slid shut again and Renée leaned back against the back wall, her heart racing. Her face felt cold, clammy even. She had expected… She wasn't sure what she had expected. Somewhere in her mind she had dreamed of a swell of music, Dominik turning to face her and their embrace to be natural and joyous. That all the proper words would come from her and he would forgive her and hold her tight. That everything would work out like it was supposed to. Yet when she had finally seen him, standing in the hallway with his coworker-

She had frozen up. She had faced down aliens, a monstrous plant, a power-hungry duo of geniuses and yet still she was falling short. 

Renée covered her face with her hands and laughed brokenly. She was such an idiot. Her husband had thought she was dead for years. Hell, she hadn’t been around people besides her crew and a bunch of cliche capitalist monsters for years. She didn’t know how she expected this to go well, she didn’t know why she still clung to the hope of romance and happily ever after. 

“Come on Minkowski. Just bite the bullet.” She whispered to herself, pulling her hands away and facing the doors. “You’ve harpooned a guy, come on.” With more force than was probably necessary, she pressed the button for Dominik’s floor again. Clasping her hands behind her back, she stepped out with a confident stride as the doors opened back up. Keeping her head held high, she moved passed the water cooler and towards the office with Dominik’s name on it. Taking a deep breath she rapped twice on the door before opening it.

There was a moment where when he looked up she got to see that same polite smile he had worn when dealing with people at social get-togethers. The look that she had laughed at time and time again, teased him for because shouldn’t someone in his line of work be better at dealing with people? It tugged at every string wrapped around her heart, pulling her towards him, moving her across the room to brace her hands on the chair.

She wanted to greet him romantically. She wanted to flash a cocky grin and make a snarky comment that would make Eiffel or Lovelace proud. But as she watched his smile turn into a look of disbelief, and then watched his face morph into one of unrelenting joy mixed with a look of yearning and tears, she found herself unable to speak. Her knuckles were white as she squeezed the chair as he stood. A hesitant, weak smile pulled at her lips and suddenly she could feel the tears running down her own cheeks, taste their salt as they hit her lips as her shoulders began to shake.

“Renee?” His voice trembled and she found herself thinking the ridiculous thought at least she wasn’t the only one embarrassing herself here.

“Yeah Dom. It’s me.” Her voice cracked as he moved from his desk seat to her, as his hand came to rest against her cheek, as though to test if she was really there. She leaned into his touch, one she had been missing, been craving, ever since that damned ship had begun to feel more like a prison than a job. She looked at him, her heart finally steadying it’s staccato beat as she took in his face and all the changes that had occurred over the years. “I’m finally home.” 


End file.
